Teens locked up for unprovoked bottle attack

TWO 16-year-olds who set upon a man “like a pack of animals” in an unprovoked attack last year have been locked up.

The victim, then 24, had gone over to a group of youths near his house in Yaxley and advised them to move on before police arrived.

But several members of the group turned on him and launched a violent attack, punching and kicking him to the ground before smashing a glass bottle over his head.

The victim still suffers from a lack of feeling on the left side of his face and has glass fragments imbedded in the back of his head.

Police were quickly on the scene and two 15-year-old boys were arrested. The attack happened just after 11pm on July 23 last year.

They denied causing grievous bodily harm with intent but were convicted following a seven-day trial at Huntingdon Crown Court.

At Huntingdon Crown Court on Friday (November 11), both boys, now aged 16, were sentenced to three years in a Young Offender Institution. The court also passed a 10-year restraining order banning them from going to Southdown Road in Yaxley, where the attack happened, or contacting the victim or his family.

One the boys was also sentenced to a 12-month detention and training order, to be served concurrently, for a separate charge of grievous bodily harm without intent. He pleaded guilty to that incident which happened on December 11 last year.

Detective constable Becky Mainwood said: “This was a nasty, unprovoked attack on a man who was actually trying to do the right thing and prevent the group getting into trouble with the police.

“The gang turned on him like a pack of animals and he suffered really serious injuries as he was punched, kicked and struck with bottles.